In a vehicle during travel, there are various types of information, for example, information displayed on instruments such as a traveling speed, engine revolution speed, a residual quantity of fuel, and so on, information such as a position of a vehicle, or the like. The concept of a probe car is to collect the information, effectively use the information, and so on.
For example, when the speed and the position of the vehicle are collected, the traffic situation of a predetermined section can be accurately recognized. A large number of sensors configured to measure the number of passing vehicles and their speeds are installed on some roads at short intervals of several hundred meters, and even at present, accurate congestion information is provided. On the other hand, since a probe car uses the vehicle itself as a sensor, information can be collected even on a road on which the sensor is not installed.
In addition, as another method of using a probe car, when information referred to as a brake pedal condition information is collected and a place where a large number of drivers brake suddenly is investigated, a place where a certain hazard easily occurs can be analyzed, and occurrence of an accident can be prevented by taking measures in advance. Further, as another method of using a probe car, a method of collecting ON-OFF information on a switch of a wiper and recognizing a local weather situation is considered.
While there are many other methods of using a probe car, the methods includes problems, such as privacy problems. The probe car may invade the privacy of the driver of a vehicle. This is because who is in the vehicle, when the vehicle moves, and where the vehicle may be determined. Here, the probe car is preferably required to securely protect individual privacy while collecting necessary information, and feed back advantageous information to a user.
As technologies related to such a background, various technologies are known (for example, see Patent Literature 1).
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses an information processing device capable of acquiring traffic information using a mobile communication terminal. More specifically, the device generates identification information that can identify a handheld communication terminal carried on one or more moving bodies only to a period required for traffic information collection. Then, the device collects an arrival time when a handheld communication terminal arrives at two or more predetermined places or an arrival position of the handheld communication terminal at two or more predetermined times based on identification information. Then, the device stores the collected arrival time or arrival position to correspond to the generated identification information. Then, the device detects a moving state of the moving body based on the arrival time or the arrival position stored to correspond to the identification information. In addition, the device instructs the handheld communication terminal to remove the identification information stored in the handheld communication terminal at predetermined timing. In this way, for example, a user of the handheld communication terminal can provide place information without fear of invasion of privacy.